Vietnam veterans sue CIA for mind control experiments

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) have filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA, the US Department of Defense and numerous other government entities and individuals, for subjecting US military personnel to chemical, biological and mind control experiments from 1953 until 1976. The Washington, DC-based group said it filed the lawsuit on behalf of six elderly veterans “with multiple diseases and ailments”, who were subjected to “secret experiments to test toxic chemical and biological substances under code names such as MKULTRA”. The codeword refers to a lengthy research program by the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI, a.k.a. Technical Services Division) to test the effects of various types of drugs in altering the brain function of unsuspecting subjects. The law firm representing the plaintiffs said that OSI began conducting the experiments in the early 1950s and that the CIA continued them in various forms until “at least 1976”. In the 1970s, Congressional research revealed that countless unsuspecting members of the US military were subjected to thousands of covert experiments, which were contracted by the CIA and conducted at US military bases, as well as in numerous hospitals and research institutions across the nation. The VVA alleges that the mind control experimentations included “the insertion of septal implants in the brains of subjects in […] mind control experiments that went awry, leaving many civilian and military subjects with permanent disabilities”, as well as “the  destruction by the CIA of evidence and files” relating to the experiments. CIA spokesperson Marie Harf has refused to comment on the lawsuit.